Gas barrier characteristic films, which are made by using on a surface of a macromolecular base an inorganic substance (including inorganic oxides), such as aluminum oxide, silicon oxide, magnesium oxide, etc., and forming a vapor-deposited film of such an inorganic substance through utilization of a physical vapor deposition method (PVD method), such as a vacuum evaporation method, a sputtering method, an ion plating method or the like, a chemical vapor deposition method (CVD method), such as a plasma chemical vapor deposition method, a thermal chemical vapor deposition method, a photo-chemical vapor deposition method or the like, etc., are used as wrapping materials for foods, medicines, etc. that require blockage of various gasses, such as water vapor, oxygen, etc. and as members of electronic devices, such as thin-screen televisions, solar batteries, etc.
As a gas barrier characteristic-improving technology there is used, for example, a method that improves gas barrier characteristic while maintaining transparency by forming on a base a compound that contains silicon oxide as a main component and also at least one species selected from carbon, hydrogen, silicon and oxygen by a plasma CVD method through the use of a gas that contains vapor of an organic silicon compound and oxygen (patent document 1). Furthermore, as a gas barrier characteristic-improving technology other than the film formation method such as the plasma CVD method or the like, there is used a smooth base in which protrusions or irregularities that can be causes of occurrence of pinholes or cracks that deteriorate the gas barrier characteristic have been reduced, or a base provided with an anchor coat layer for the purpose of smoothing the surface (patent document 2).